Cartridges at Lidl from july 25

[Lucas28]

i really dont like 3rd party cartriges EVER since i never know what kind of ink they hold..

True, but this time the package says: Ink Swiss made. That was not on other occasions with Lidl carts. It can only mean that a Swiss manufacturer had a surplus on their shelves, maybe caused by the high rate of the Swiss frank, and decided to make a deal with Lidl. Let's just take advantage of the situation.

Most non OEM cartridges are filled with ink from the market. Was it Chinese ink yesterday, it can be surplus ink from a well known manufacturer today. Different inks in the same brand cartridges.
And no, the quality is not constant.

 

[cls]

just noticed your Signature Do you also refill your picture mate?

 

[Lucas28]

just noticed your Signature Do you also refill your picture mate?

The picturemate came with some OEM cartridges so I didn't refill it yet.
I removed the chip from a dried out cart and resetting it was easy with a generation 2 resetter (for Epson T0611).
In the future they will be refilled!

 

[PeterBJ]

Lucas28 wrote:

I think the ink is from 3T-Supplies, which is usually sold under the brand name 'Peach'. Not a bad product. The peach carts cost a bit more, but Lidl can offer it for a sharper price.

I think you are right. I went to my local Lidl to buy photo paper and possibly also a set of the HP 364 XL compatible cartridges. I got the paper but only cartridges for Canon were available. Out of curiosity I bought a set of PGI-520/CLI-521 compatibles to test in a Pixma 3600. The cartridges look like these made by Peach: http://www.swiss-ink.com/images/products/313547.jpg The design of the cartridges is the same, and there are only small differences between the labels.

Often 3rd party cartridge manufacturers use dye ink in the cartridge supposed to hold pigment ink, so I tested the ink in the C520 cartridge from Lidl. I used Q-tips that I had touched to the ink outlets of a cartridges containing KMP-U pigment ink "P", IS photoblack "D", and the Lidl C520 cartridge "?", to write on a piece of plain paper. Pigment ink is clearly visible in infrared and dye ink is almost invisible. Here is a scan using visible light and a picture taken with a webcam modified to work in the near infrared range. Note the "D" is almost invisible infrared and the "?" is clearly visible, indicating the ink in the C520 cartridge is pigment.

Using the "PrinterEvaluationImage" test picture I find that a greyscale is neutral, and reds are a bit dull, and colours are a little less saturated than Canon OEM cartridges and Canon OEM cartridges refilled with IS inks. A little tweaking may correct this. I will do more testing.

Even if the cartridges miss the locking tabs that hold OEM cartridges in place, they have a good firm fit in the print head.

More testing will be needed to see if these cartridges cause clogging or other problems, but my first impression of these compatibles is that they are good and fairly priced. But refilling OEM cartridges with IS and KMP inks is better and less expensive. I have estimated my refill costs including inks, accessories, and shipment to €1 for the CLI-521 cartridges and €2 for the larger PGI-520 cartridges. The price of the Lidl compatibles were DKK 35 = €4.70, which is more expensive than in The Netherlands.

Edit: When using the Lidl photo paper and the settings Photo Paper Pro Platinum and quality = Automatic, increasing CMY by 10 units in the manual adjustment for the Pixma 3600 improves the printed image very much, and saturation now appears normal. Here are the settings:

Edited to retype the Euro signs that were lost in transition from the old to the new forum software.